Depressing Turkish news article :-(

[Sleuth]

John Lennons beautiful track `Imagine`and the visuals accompanying it during the Olympic closing ceremony to me was the highlight of the night ... even the rendition at the very end of the show  by the female singer did it justice..  but reading the below article today is alarming and depressing, and worrying....

A reporter from state-run TRT Turkish television translated the famous song live, but omitted the last part of the lyrics when he came to the lines ”Imagine… nothing to kill or die for / And no religion too.” Oversight or censorship? The jury is still out, but the center-left opposition and secular organizations accuse Islamic nationalist Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan – whose pet project is a gigantic mosque to dwarf all other mosques, which he has promised the people of Istanbul – of secretly wanting to Islamicize the country.

[Dutchie]

What's new.

I've been watching some CNBC-E lately and a lot of the translation is incorrect.
Sexual relations are being referred to as "friendship" and words like e.g. drugs are quite often omitted.
Some series must be confusing to watch if you rely on the subtitles alone.

[nichola]

They (cnbc e) don't seem to mind the blasphemy though - (oh) God is always translated correctly Tanrım   

But I would say the writing is on the wall for Turkey. Recent changes like the internet censorship although I have no idea if I am being censored or not as it happens, and some of the changes to the constitution coupled with plans to separate boys and girls at summer camp (this may have been implemented this summer but I don't know) and the recent attack on women's right to choose and abortion being declared on national TV as murder by the Prime Minister suggest these are changing times.

[janie]

I watched the article on BBC News "Turkey at a crossroads" seems they will taking the road to the East, something they have been leaning towards ever since Mr. Erdogan came to power!

[Dutchie]

If it wasn't for the army, Erdogan would turn Turkey into a second Iran 

[nichola]

And the army lost a lot of their powers when the constitution changed and continues to lose power day by day'

[starman]

Army is almost in RTE's pocket now so dont think there will be any more coup d'memorandum or even a coup d'twitter anytime soon.
Also some other disturbing goings on. Before RTE came along there was over 30 pig farms around this part of Turkey, now it is down to one because the goverment isnt re-issuing their license due to "health" reasons. Also there is an alarming amount of pubs (decent ones) being closed down and some areas like Etiler which was very popular for them have lost all of their pubs. Even in my local town of Gokturk, they closed the one and only North Shield down 4 weeks ago.
Tell the truth, after 20 years here next October, I am getting fed up with this place and wouldnt mind moving on.
This place is not perfect and is not paradise but where is?

[Dutchie]

So true what both are you are saying.

I didn't know about the pig farms but knew that they had been closing down quite a lot of pubs.
It started along the Bosphorus (for family reasons bla bla bla) but Etiler is really ridiculous though.
Where will it end? 

[ytokgoz]

well the most funny one was many years ago watching smurfs. the girl smurf is asking another smurf where is the old smurf gone. and the answer is the old smurf went to mosque. : ))))))) that  made my day

[jackstee]

When we flew in and stayed an Dalaman for a couple of night's(not good I admit) back in 2008, the local mayor had refused to issue alcohol licenses as he was one of the RTEs.

Could only get under the counter beer and no decent wine.

He, I believe is out now.